Meta

An Event Apart: “Leveling Up Your Design Communication”

Design is a medium for communication, and to do it well, we must cultivate our own communication skills. Within design teams, we do our best work when we create a culture of feedback shaped by our creative space and our design review process. Beyond the design tribe, our work thrives when it’s communicated in language that aligns to the goals of the business and invites participation early and often. In this presentation, Aarron will share the experiences of real design teams at Apple, Spotify, and other organizations to show how to improve the communication of design both inside your team and with key outside stakeholders. You’ll see how to run effective design reviews and retrospectives which will help you create a culture of feedback that produces better work, helps designers sharpen their skills, and communicates the value of design by making it more transparent and inviting.

Notes

We are all struggling to communicate at scale

The breakpoint — Mo’ people, mo’ problems

Language

As language specializes teams fragment

Language shapes the work

Language shapes the culture

Language shapes the partnerships

Design on any level is a team sport

Let’s speak the language of good design

Most people are let go because of soft skills, not hard skills

Visibility — The state of being able to see or be seen. The degree to which something has attracted general attention.

As companies grow, visibility goes away

Why do companies/offices look different than the places we are trained (schools/universities)?

Communication flows best when the work is visible

Design that’s not visible can’t be valued

Design reviews — A formal assessment or examination of work with the possibility or intention of instituting change if necessary

Invite the right people—not just designers

Limit attendees to 5-6 people to be productive

The facilitator — reviews that are really productive are facilitated

Google Ventures process:

Set the stage — send e-mail with agenda to set expectations

Review business goals

Review customer goals

Review constraints

Review schedule

Set expectations on fidelity — for example, explain that this is a prototype, sketch, etc., not a final working product

Direct the feedback

Feedback

Be candid

Be specific — “Never say candy bar when you can say Snickers”

Tie everything to goals

Affirm what is working

Problems first, then solutions

Suggestions, not mandates

Cadence — A rhythmic sequence or flow

If you do these things on a regular basis, then you can create a culture of feedback

The best way to get comfortable is by practicing

Showing a sketch early on is a helpful way to bring people in, make them feel like part of the process

Polish — Improve, refine, or add the finishing touches to

The lower the polish, the more people you can bring in

Retrospectives — Looking back on or dealing with past events or situations

Learn from every success and failure

Survey before the meeting

Rate team and individual performance

Start, stop, keep

What is something you want to start doing?

What is something you want to stop doing?

What is something you want to keep doing?

Agile islands — when teams get unbalanced (1 designer, 11 engineers)

Paired design — A set of two things used together or regarded as a unit. Two people related in some way or considered together.

Design operations — A piece of organized and concerted activity involving a number of people, especially members of a design team.

DesignOps (like DevOps)

All about language and communication

A producer (like in filmmaking) — provides resources and help to designers

Safe harbor — Protected from or not exposed to danger or risk; not likely to be harmed or lost

Translation — A written or spoken rendering of the meaning of a word, speech, book, or other text, in another language

Speak to business goals, not design goals

Design debt

Slows time to market

UX crashes — explain design problems like you would software problems

Reduces retention

HEART (Happiness, Engagement, Adoption, Retention, Task Success)

Co-Creation — The action or process of bringing something into existence together

Design-centricity develops by inviting participation in design

Create a shared language and process

Language

Fuels a culture of feedback

Is supported by infrastructure

Aligned with business

You gain more power by bringing people into what you do — dismantling the magic